Although not nearly as spectacular as their male counterparts, female wood ducks are still pretty good looking birds. On last January’s trip to the Vancouver area, I was able to photograph both sexes. Above, a portrait of a female wood duck, and below an action shot of one taking off from a pond.
(top photo) Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 270mm) ISO 1600, f/5 at 1/800th of a second
(bottom photo) Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 210mm) ISO 1600, f/5 at 1/800th of a second

It’s sandhill crane time once again in Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico. This time of year, thousands of these large birds congregate near Socorro in the central part of the state. I took this shot of three of them coming in for a synchronized landing, a few years ago, just after the annual Festival of the Cranes.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/400th of a second

A break in all the Botswana action for something a little closer to home. These four black bear cubs of varying ages were all playing together one afternoon on my trip to northern Minnesota back in June.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 220mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second

This sea otter appears to be having a rough morning out on the open water of Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing, California. Either that, or it’s just giving its head a good cleaning after munching on a feast of clams and mussels.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second

This one goes out to all my fellow Cheshire High Rams that I had such a good time with last Saturday night at our 30 year reunion. Cheshire, being in Connecticut, doesn’t have any real bighorn sheep among its residents — Wyoming, on the other hand, where this photo was taken, has plenty to go around. Enjoy, and see you all at the next reunion.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second

Some of you might remember a horizontal photo of horseshoe crabs spawning on the beach that I posted a while back. Here’s another shot from that night I was in Cape May, New Jersey. The horseshoe crabs spawn during the month of May at high tide. Full and new moons bring the greatest number of crabs ashore.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/20 at 13 seconds, graduated neutral density filter

Since my trip to Minnesota in late June it seems like I’ve been posting a black bear pic each week. No reason not to keep the streak going. I love the way these two cinnamon colored black bears look almost bald on their faces as their cinnamon coat gives way to the more traditional black fur around their eyes, forehead and cheeks.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/400th of a second

This nine-banded armadillo on Merritt Island in Florida was searching everywhere. For what, I don’t know, but it must have been important because he was quite frantic about his search. He even looked inside this moss-covered log for that thing he wanted so much. I didn’t stick around long enough to see if he ever did find what he was looking for.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 19mm) ISO 800, f/3.2 at 1/640th of a second

A few years back, I was down on the Delaware Bay photographing the curious, yet not entirely surprising mating ritual of the least tern. Male least terns catch a fish and then use that fish as payment for services rendered by the female. I watched while lying face down on the sand and took many low perspective photos of this pair as he returned from the sea and showed her the fish. Satisfied with what she saw, she allowed him to mount her and do his thing — about a 3 minute performance. The whole time, he kept the fish in his mouth, shaking his head back and forth until finished. Then she turned around and he dropped the fish, not in her mouth, but rather unchivalrously to the side, as if not completely satisfied. Both, however, seemed to get what they wanted and flew off in opposite directions. I had been watching several other terns doing the same thing and noticed that sometimes the female was not satisfied with the fish and refused the male, while other times the male checked out the female, fish in his mouth, and decided that she wasn’t worthy and flew off in search of another female. These two were the only ones that allowed me a close enough approach to capture the action.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 200, f/6.3 at 1/1600th of a second